Ban fracking campaign will hold demonstration at US Ecology site in Detroit in protest of frack waste facility's tenfold expansion plans

CHARLEVOIX, MICH. – The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, a grassroots ballot initiative campaign gathering signatures for a ballot proposal to ban horizontal fracking and frack wastes, will join a protest rally on October 3, at 10 a.m. outside the U.S. Ecology hazardous waste processing facility. The address of the site is: 6520 Georgia St, Detroit. Attached is a flyer for the event.

Fracking and the disposal of frack wastes continue in the state. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality permitted 10 more horizontal wells in Grand Traverse, Manistee and Crawford counties in 2015. The hazardous waste processing facility in Detroit, which takes 40% of its wastes from out-of-state, including some from oil and gas operations, is likely to be approved by DEQ to expand its operations ten-fold. However, an extension on public comments on the plan has been issued for October 12. Reporting on the expansion Friday, the Detroit Free Press cited US Ecology’s admission that liquid waste treated by the facility is going into the Detroit Water and Sewer Department system, which provides water to the entire metro Detroit area.[1] The ballot initiative would prevent such wells and frack waste processing and disposal.

The public is on the Committee’s side in knowing the dangers of fracking and frack wastes. In May, a poll by Public Policy Polling indicated a strong majority of fifty-five percent (55%) of Michigan voters would vote yes to support the Committee’s ballot proposal to ban fracking and frack wastes statewide, change the current law that requires the State to foster the gas and oil industry and put in its place a requirement that human health and the environment be protected during oil and gas development, and give Michigan residents the right to sue if the fracking industry violates the ban. Only 32% oppose the measure, and 12% are not sure.

An overwhelming majority, sixty-four percent (64%) of those polled, support a ban on frack wastes being disposed of in Michigan, including frack wastes produced in other states, after hearing that currently frack wastes, including radioactive drill cuttings, muds and sludges, and millions of gallons of fluids containing toxic chemicals, are disposed of in Michigan landfills, injection wells and at Michigan gas drilling sites.

Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan is a ballot question committee registered with the State of Michigan Bureau of Elections. The Committee’s website is: www.letsbanfracking.org. To learn more about the poll results, click here.